


Mutagenesis

by laireshi



Category: Marvel 616, X-Factor (Comics)
Genre: 890fifth, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Earth-TRN123, M/M, Role Reversal, Stony Bingo, X-Factor #231, holy shit what's happened to Tony?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 01:22:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3155567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/pseuds/laireshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony would know what to do if their situation was reversed, Steve was sure of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mutagenesis

**Author's Note:**

> [Salmastryon](http://archiveofourown.org/users/salmastryon) gave me the idea, blame her.
> 
> It's a fill for [Round 8 of 890fifth](http://890fifth.tumblr.com/post/107016684765/the-quote-is-jack-kerouac-on-the-road-quick) and "canon: au verses and what if...?" on my bingo card.
> 
> [runningondreams](http://archiveofourown.org/users/runningondreams), you're awesome and thank you for betaing and talking it out^^
> 
> (more notes at the end)

They lost contact with Earth on July 9th, midnight.

Steve was on duty, and he was just chatting with Tony over the comm link, when everything went silent. The computers down on Earth wouldn't answer.

Their station still seemed operable, though, and even if the space quinjet in their garage ended up malfunctioning too for some reason, he knew Carol could just fly down and see what happened.

Steve hoped it was a connectivity problem. But when he turned away from the console after running all the tests, he heard Tony again.

“ _Don't come back_ ,” he said. He sounded desperate, like he really wanted Steve to stay away, and it was wrong.

He'd given Steve home.

Steve _knew_ he'd never take it away.

It sounded like the Earth was in trouble; Tony couldn't possibly expect him not to come. He woke Carol up, and as soon as she blinked sleep out of her eyes and understood what he was telling her, power washed over her, leaving her as Ms. Marvel.

“So what do we do?” she asked.

“Something happened,” Steve said. “And they need our help.”

She nodded. “I'll get the quinjet ready,” she said.

They didn't need discussions. Their friends were in trouble, and they were Avengers. It was an easy decision.

***

The mission didn't seem quite so easy, down on Earth.

The quinjet shook as Carol got them lower, and she cursed. “Someone's attacking us,” she said, and Steve was already reaching for his shield.

“I'll have to— _fuck_.”

The windshield exploded. Steve ducked, and the next thing he knew Carol had her arm around his waist, flying them out. “What—”

“I've no idea,” she said. It was dark, but as Steve looked down, he could see silhouettes gathering down on the ground. In the distance, he could see the dark outline of the Avengers Tower, a slightly darker shape against the black sky. There weren't any lights on, and it was enough to tell Steve it wasn't safe there. Maybe it was good they couldn't even try to land there.

Iron Man wasn't anywhere in sight, and that was wrong too. He should be there, protecting the city.

Steve raised his shield as a green ball of energy flew at them. It looked dangerously like Spider-Woman's blasts, but he didn't say that observation aloud.

“I can fly us out of the city,” Carol said grimly.

“They can fly too,” Steve noted grimly. Whoever _they_ were.

“We can't stay here,” Carol said, and that much was true.

Down on the ground, Steve thought he recognized some of the gathered people—or at least their costumes. Some of them, he wouldn't have guessed they were human without that familiar tell. Someone wearing a red and blue suit had a multitude of limbs. Someone in a shredded yellow vest was _covered_ in blades. Someone with a white _4_ on their chest had tentacles.

And they all were looking up, at Steve and Carol, and none of them looked friendly.

Steve needed distance from this; mostly to think.

He had no idea what was happening and he needed to gather his thoughts. And there was one more question Steve desperately wanted answered, and it was: _where are you, Tony?_

***

They went to one of Nick Fury's safehouses in the end. Steve was reasonably sure no one knew about it, and Carol managed to lose anyone who could've followed them. Flying with her was nothing like flying with Iron Man, but Steve had held on as she manoeuvred and raised them higher, until no one had been able to see them.

The heat wasn't on, and he was cold after the night flight, but Carol sat next to him, glowing warm as if apologising.

“What was all of it?” Steve asked quietly.

“Tony said not to return,” Carol mused. “I don't—he doesn't give up that easily.”

 _And something made him_ , Steve finished.

***

It wasn't just superheroes who had changed. 

It was _everyone_.

“It's like a zombie flick,” Carol said after returning from a quick patrol. 

It was exactly what Tony would say, Steve thought. But Tony was nowhere to be found.

They hadn't met anyone who hadn't tried to kill them. They had no idea what had happened. Steve wanted to believe Tony would have the answers when they found him.

***

Natasha found them two days later.

Two days of Carol flying out to look for their friends, two days of Steve sneaking down the streets, trying to find anyone who remained human.

He should be happy about seeing her, but a part of him wished it'd be Tony instead.

“No more humans,” she said, and Steve stared at her. “Three words, and the world was changed.”

“A spell?” Carol asked.

“ _Wanda's_ spell,” Natasha said. “I don't remember.” A pause. “Someone else—well. Will you come with me?”

She clearly didn't trust them with all the information, but Steve couldn't blame her, not with how the world looked around them now. “I have to find Tony,” he said.

“He's gone,” Natasha said. 

“You're—you're normal, why wouldn't he be?”

They both looked at him with something like pity, and he _hated_ it, but hope was all he had now. And if Tony was still himself, he could fix the rest of the world, right?

“He's gone,” Natasha repeated. “You'll only hurt yourself.”

“I have to know.”

“Carol?”

“I'm staying with Steve,” Carol said.

Steve frowned at her. He _needed_ to find Tony, but . . . “You should go.”

“I'm staying,” she repeated.

Natasha sighed. “If you change your minds . . .” She shook her head. “You won't. But if you see him and survive, come find me. There are others who weren't affected. Not many, but . . .”

“Understood,” Steve said.

***

Steve saw someone floating in the air in front of the Tower and he _knew_.

He briefly thought of going to find Carol, but what if Tony disappeared in that time? He had to go _now_.

No one attacked him on the way. If he were able to think of something other than _Tony_ , he'd have found that weird. He reached the Avengers Tower just as Tony touched down in front of it.

He looked fine. Human. He had on black pants and a t-shirt, and he didn't seem hurt.

But his eyes were glowing with power, and he had just been levitating without his armour on.

“I told you to stay away,” Tony said flatly.

Steve wanted to reach out, but he told himself not to. He wasn't stupid. He knew Tony might not be friendly now with whatever Wanda's spell had done to him. But Steve couldn't give up on him all the same. “You couldn't have expected me to,” he said.

“I can't protect you,” Tony said.

“I don't need protecting,” Steve snapped. Tony should know as much.

“Don't you?” Tony asked mildly, and there they were, at the edges of Steve's vision; no longer people, monsters, and he hated to think of them that way, but—

They were staying away, he realised, and looked at Tony cautiously.

“How are you doing it?” Steve asked.

“I used to hate magic,” Tony said. “But it has its uses.”

“Come with me,” Steve said. They could fix this, together. He could do anything if Tony was with him.

Tony laughed.

He seemed to be shining, and Steve could almost _feel_ the raw power emanating from him. Glass shook in the windows in the buildings next to them.

A tentacle of light jumped at Steve. He dodged, raised his shield against another. Tony was watching him, left hand raised.

“Sorry,” he said in a voice that wasn't his own. “No more humans.”

“Is that so,” Steve said. Natasha had said that too. Was the spell an order as well?

He couldn't just leave Tony here. He had to help him.

He threw the shield to his right, and jumped forward, avoiding Tony's attacks as he went. The shield ricocheted off a lamp post and hit Tony in the back.

He went down, and that was when the waiting monsters attacked Steve.

Carol landed behind him.

***

“ _What were you thinking_.”

“You know I had to—”

“I'm with you, damn it, you should've told me—”

“There was no time—” He broke off. “It's Tony.”

She'd looked like she wanted to argue more, but she just deflated at that. “I know,” she said. “But what can we do?”

Steve glanced at where Tony was lying on a bed, still unconscious, his hands bound. As if that could stop him.

Tony would know what to do if their situation was reversed, Steve was sure of it.

***

Tony woke a few hours later. His eyes looked normal. Steve wanted to hope. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

Tony focused on him. “Tell me you didn't— _Steve_.”

“I couldn't leave you,” Steve said.

“ _I'll kill you_ ,” Tony said, and he seemed afraid. “I've tried already.”

“You're stronger than that,” Steve said. He wanted to believe it, too.

“I'm not,” Tony snapped. “It comes and goes, and—Carol?”

“Hiya.”

“Knock some sense into him,” Tony pleaded. He didn't even try to sit up, didn't glance at his bound hands. He seemed scared of himself. The way he was acting; he'd clearly given up, and it was making Steve unnerved. Could he help Tony?

“You're my friend too,” she said.

“And I'll kill you too,” he said. “You haven't been here . . .” he trailed off.

“You warned us,” Steve said. “You're okay now. You obviously can't be—” _What_ was he, really?

“It gets worse with time,” Tony said. “There's—I can manipulate physics. It doesn't make any sense, it's driving me crazy—”

Carol moved in front of Steve, quick as lightning.

Tony was standing in front of the bed, his hands free, his eyes shining. “I _love_ it,” he said. “I'm almost sorry for humans.”

Steve shook his head. “Tony, _please_.”

Carol looked ready for a fight, and Steve didn't know what to do.

Tony smiled. “You're so funny,” he said. Something _changed_ —

They stood in the Avengers Tower living room. Steve looked around wildly. It looked real; the mess of newspapers on the coffee table, the remote lying on the sofa, all the Avengers pictures on the walls. But it was empty and dark. It was supposed to be _home_. It felt nothing like that in that moment.

“Maybe I could _fix_ you,” Tony said.

Carol fired at him then, a blast of power, but he just laughed.

The next thing Steve knew was darkness.

***

He woke up in one of the Tower holding cells. Carol wasn't there.

What if Steve had gotten her killed? What if he _couldn't_ help Tony?

“You should've killed me when you knocked me out,” Tony said.

Steve jerked upright. He hadn't noticed him arriving. But then, who was to say Tony walked here and didn't just teleport?

“Tony,” he said. “This isn't you.”

“No more humans,” Tony quoted. “Do you know how it felt to be the only human on the team?”

“ _You made that team_ ,” Steve said. “You—just stop.”

Tony shook his head, but something was changing in his face.

“You gave me home,” Steve said. “Don't take it away.”

Tony waved his hand, and the door to Steve's cell opened. He ran out without considering what else Tony might do. It was always better not to be locked in a small space.

Tony looked at him with sad eyes. “It's too late,” he said, and Steve knew it was him this time.

“It's not,” he argued. There was Natasha, he thought and didn't say, because—

He couldn't trust Tony anymore.

“This is my worst nightmare,” Tony said. “Hurting my friends. Hurting _you_.”

“You're not—”

“ _Stop me_ ,” Tony said.

Steve knew what Tony was asking, but he couldn't make himself do that.

The weight of the shield settled on his back, and he stared at Tony.

His eyes were pleading. He was himself, but for how long? Steve knew they didn't have much time.

He thought back to Tony standing outside the Tower, using magic like he'd been born for it, attacking Steve. Of him holding back tens of people with what looked like barely a thought. Of him attacking Carol.

That hadn't been Tony.

He'd warned Steve not to come back; had he been himself then? 

The walls around them shook. “Well,” Tony said, his eyes shining unnaturally again. “That was a funny conversation.”

He was dangerous, the enemy, and Steve didn't need Tony telling him that to know he'd hate to be that man.

This time, when Steve threw the shield, he didn't aim only to knock him out.

**Author's Note:**

> Major character death, Tony.


End file.
